At a very young age I was encouraged to participate in a variety of sports which have subsequently shaped me into the person I am today

At a very young age I was encouraged to participate in a variety of sports which have subsequently shaped me into the person I am today

At a very young age I was encouraged to participate in a variety of sports which have subsequently shaped me into the person I am today. The sport that has played the most pivotal role in my life would have to be football. I’m an avid football fan and player and travel home and away to support my team. I’ve played football all my life and understand the ramifications and intricacies of achieving individual sporting success within your specific field. I have trained and played for both my school and local football team and my tenacity and commitment to my sport paid off by being being awarded top goal scorer and managers player during the 2013/14 season. These awards gave me the drive and determination to be the best athlete I could possibly be and in the consecutive season I was made team captain.
I have a huge passion for sport and always relish the challenges of learning new ones as well as bettering myself in existing ones. Throughout my A2 PE course the topic of biomechanics has fascinated me and in an attempt to further extend my knowledge I attended an extra curricular lecture where biomechanics was discussed at length. One particular thing that enthralled me from this lecture was how elite athletes are able to keep improving despite being the best athlete within their particular field. To get a more realistic view of the academic side of sport and biomechanics itself, I decided to read Seb Coes autobiography which gave me a true insight of a first hand experience into how biomechanics and sporting success were linked. This has subsequently made me curious to learn more about this intriguing aspect of sport and to use it when I teach PE.
3 years ago I was given the opportunity to be an assistant teacher at a local primary school through work experience. This was an invaluable experience which I learned a lot from and helped me understand what was involved in being teacher which I aspire to be once I have completed the course. I was able to get the children to try their hardest and participate in numerous team building exercises which improved their teamwork and coordination as a group. The skills I gathered from this experience such as; leadership, organisation and planning were implemented into the completion of my silver Duke of Edinburgh award. As I have been my football team captain for 2 years I was used to organising large groups of people and found leading my expedition team relatively easy. When I was teaching juniors badminton for the volunteering section of my Duke of Edinburgh I expanded upon the teaching skills I learnt during my work experience and adapted my coaching techniques to every individuals needs so they felt like they were involved and improving.
All 3 of my A2 subjects; Biology, PE and Geography have each had their own . Biology has helped me discover and learn all the biological processes within the body and how each of them interrelate to sport. It has also taught me about diet and exercise and the key aspects to maintaining a healthy lifestyle, which is what I want to instil on the people I teach in the future. Within Geography I have looked at numerous case studies that are dedicated to the obesity problem within the UK and how in todays society obesity levels are 3x higher than in 1980. I feel like PE itself can drastically reduce these numbers for the future and by encouraging more children to actively take up a sport and stay healthy. A big part of PE is sports psychology, which has taught me how to motivate people to perform to the best of their ability through different techniques like extrinsic motivation particularly through external factors like prizes. I feel this knowledge will be essential when I go on to the work placement as part of the course.